Couple's irresistibly inventive talent keeps CSO audience entertained

Two champions of new music brought an all-American program to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra on Friday night, and the result was both exhilarating and eye-opening.

The well-known American conductor David Robertson made his debut in music by Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein and Steven Mackey. And at the keyboard for much of the evening was pianist Orli Shaham, an extraordinary talent who is, incidentally, married to Robertson.

Robertson, currently music director of the St. Louis Symphony and chief conductor of the Sydney (Australia) Symphony orchestra, opened with Bernstein's suite of Three Dance Episodes from his first musical comedy, "On the Town." Robertson was a magnetic presence who knew how to make the orchestra swing in these jazzy episodes about the story of three sailors on shore leave in the Big Apple. It was a fun introduction to the conductor, who, when the crowd applauded after the first dance, turned, grinned and said, "I've always liked that one, too."

It also made an irresistible opener, and the musicians gave it a polished reading. Terrific solos included Douglas Lindsay's blues trumpet at the start of "Lonely Town."

The evening's centerpiece was the orchestra's first performance of Mackey's "Stumble to Grace," a piano concerto written for Shaham, which she and Robertson premiered in St. Louis in 2011. The composer, who is a professor at Princeton University, was inspired by Shaham's and Robertson's toddler twin boys, and his own child, as a metaphor for the piece. In one 25-minute span, it unfolds in five "stages" from the first, a child's stumbling first attempts at learning "how to be human," into a full-blown, sophisticated concerto.

Like much current American music, it is eclectic in its influences, which include Debussy, Bach and Mozart, Thelonius Monk and Vince Guaraldi's music for Charlie Brown. For the audience, it was not always "easy listening," but it was consistently inventive, starting with the dreamy opening and its off-kilter rhythms between piano and orchestra evoking a lurching toddler.

Shaham, who has recorded the work with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is completely at home with the music of today. She played with absolute confidence, weight and singing tone throughout its many challenges, from simple childhood tunes that reminded one of Satie, to a huge triple fugue at the end. A long, meandering cadenza at its center, for piano alone, had an improvisatory feel, and the effect was mesmerizing.

Robertson never missed a beat despite the work's tricky cross-rhythms. Only once, in a section of Rachmaninoff-like piano virtuosities, did the orchestra cover the soloist, mainly because of the thick orchestration. The finale grew to an explosive climax, complete with blasts of a police whistle, shades of "West Side Story."

The pianist returned in the second half for Bernstein's "Age of Anxiety," which the composer called his Second Symphony, but is actually a fusion of symphony and piano concerto. He took his inspiration from W.H. Auden's lengthy poem about four people in a bar, drawn together in a desperate search for meaning, fueled by alcohol and partying. In six sections and two parts, it unfolds as a kind of modern tone poem.

The Cincinnati Symphony has not performed the piece since James Tocco (now a faculty member at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music) performed the local premiere in 1987.

Shaham communicated with expressive beauty, whether communicating its lyrical themes or tackling immense, thorny passages. The jazzy "Masque" at the work's center showed off her abilities the best. It was a fantastic riff on a jazz tune, in a bright, lilting mood with fistfuls of glittering runs and leaps for the pianist.

Bernstein wrote two massive sets of variations in the first part. Robertson's knack for bringing out themes and subtleties made sense of the music, and he cultivated a lithe, well-balanced sound in the orchestra. The finale, which Bernstein struggled with and re-wrote, brought the piece to a close with an impressive display of orchestral power. Listeners were on their feet.

After intermission, Robertson also led a spiritual and expansive reading of Barber's "Adagio for Strings." Leading without a baton, he drew a gentle sound from the all-string orchestra, and punched the air at its intense climax. The effect was deeply personal.

For the second time in two weeks, the orchestra announced that a major gift has been made to the endowment. Sallie and Randolph "Duck" Wadsworth have donated an undisclosed amount to help sustain the CSO as a 52-week orchestra and support a full complement of musicians. The CSO is undergoing auditions to fill vacancies in the orchestra and recently announced a new principal trumpet.

The concert repeats in Music Hall at 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets: 513-381-3300, www.cincinnatisymphony.org.